Monthly Archives: September 2011

I responded to a friend’s comment on Facebook today with a story: Late this afternoon, close to dinner time, I just stopped. I pulled out my ipod and scrolled through e-mails at the worst possible time to take a break. Sophie was at her play kitchen stirring and mixing and transferring and patting real food […]

Each month the children at Sophie’s preschool are introduced to a different musician and artist. Yesterday, after telling me that she (again) rode the carousel (the horse, by the way, was red, pink, purple and yellow and had a pretend cake on its head that you could not eat) she listened to “Mr. Beethoven.” I […]

The week before Labor Day weekend Jill and Marty graciously flew to Cincinnati and then turned around and drove with me and the kids back to Baltimore so we could spend a long weekend at their house. Andy, who is low on vacation days, flew out after work Friday and joined us for the weekend, […]

To celebrate the first day of fall, I thought I’d wrap up summer. I, at times, get terribly behind—or too anxious to move on—and writing gets put off until I’m stuck with posting about Fourth of July on the first day of fall (which is exactly what I’m going to do now). We met up […]

I did learn that Sophie had goldfish crackers and juice for a snack, and that she made a pinwheel and took it outside to watch it spin. These things, I believed. And then there was this: Me: “Do you play with Arabella today?” Sophie: “No. Another girl and a boy.” Me: “Were they nice?” Sophie: […]

One evening my dad was over helping with the kids while Andy was out of town. Pop Pop and Sophie made a double-layer chocolate cake with pink icing. (There was a slight meltdown when my dad reached for the cocoa powder to make chocolate icing. “PINK, POP POP! PINK!” Sophie screamed. Because, of course, icing […]

Although it’s rare, every once in awhile, when the boys don’t really nap and Sophie’s in a mood, when 6pm feels very far away, when our house seems extraordinarily small, when I start feeling myself getting frustrated over the littlest of things, when I start thinking about how long 18 years really is, I drive. I load […]

Today Sophie was much more eager to tell me what she did at preschool. Here are some snippets of our conversation: Me: “Did you have snacks today? I bet you had brussels sprouts, didn’t you?” Sophie: “No! There was a big bag of candy and we each took turns jumping in it.” Me: “Really?” Sophie: “Yes. And […]

I wasn’t even in the United States. I was on vacation, with my then-boyfriend-now-husband, and his parents, in Costa Rica. We were hiking, oblivious, as the events of 9/11 unfolded. Someone who worked at Lapa Rios, the ecolodge where we were staying, told us what happened upon our return. There were no TVs at Lapa […]